MOF Urges Local Governments to Expedite the Payment Process of Their Financial Budgets

Chinese version
The Ministry of Finance ("MOF") has recently issued the Measures for Assessing the Payment Process for Local Financial Budget Enforcement (the "Measures"), with effect from May 11, 2018.

It is made clear in the Measures that targets to be assessed are provincial finance departments, and the assessment over finance departments at the prefecture and county level will be planned by provincial finance departments in a unified manner under guidelines set out in the Measures. The payment process for local financial budget enforcement will be assessed on a monthly basis from April to December of each year. According to the Measures, the assessed items include the payment process for the general public budget, the payment process for governmental fund budget, activation of carried-over surplus of the general public budget, activation of carried-over surplus of the government fund budget, etc. In addition, the Measures specify that where a region ranks in the bottom five for three consecutive times by the same assessed item, the provincial finance department concerned shall, within five working days from the release of the assessment results, submit to the MOT a plan for improvements. Where a region always ranks in the bottom position, the MOT will raise requirements for rectification or have a talk with relevant party, as the case may be.